| Tim Leissner | |
| Birth Date: | 31 October 1971 |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | Investment banker |
| Known For: | 1MDB Fraud |
| Chairman of Southeast Asia and Managing Director of Goldman Sachs | |
| Spouse: | Kimora Lee Simmons |
| Children: | 2 |
Tim Leissner (born October 31, 1971) is a German-born investment banker and a former managing director at Goldman Sachs and chairman of the bank's Southeast Asia division.[1] Leissner helped orchestrate the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal, one of the biggest financial scandals in history, in which billions of dollars were stolen. He was arrested in June 2018 in Washington, D.C., forced to pay a $43 million fine. As of 2020 he faced up to 25 years in prison but due to his cooperation has avoided spending any time in jail.
Tim Leissner was born in Germany.
See also: 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal. Leissner was employed by Goldman Sachs from 1998 to 2016 as investment banker and managing director at Goldman Sachs and became chairman of the bank's Southeast Asia division.[1] He retired in January 2016 after an internal review found he sent a fake letter to Banque Havilland on behalf of Jho Low. He was arrested in June 2018 in Washington, D.C.In 2018 he pled guilty to charges he personally stole $200 million from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and that he broke the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by paying bribes to corrupt Malaysian and Emirati offices to get Goldman Sachs business.[2] [3]
Leissner was banned for life by the Securities and Exchange Commission and forced to pay a $43 million fine. As of 2020 he faced up to 25 years in prison.[4] [5] but due to his cooperation has avoided spending any time in jail.[6]
In 2020 Goldman paid a record fine (over $5 billion) to the Malaysian and U.S. authorities over the scandal.[7] [8] In 2022, Bloomberg called Leissner "Goldman's most notorious banker."[9] He testified against his former deputy Roger Ng in a 2022 trial.[10]
In 2014, Leissner married Kimora Lee Simmons. They have one child together, a son, born in 2015.[11] [12] [13] In February 2022, it was revealed that Leissner and Simmons were estranged from each other, though it is not exactly clear when the couple split.[14]
At the time Leissner married Simmons, he was still married to his ex-wife, Judy Chan. Leissner gave Simmons photoshopped documents showing that he was divorced from Chan, and created an email address in Chan's name to convince Simmons that the couple had divorced. He continued the correspondence for over a year and continued using the email account for several years.[15]
Leissner is portrayed in the book Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World by Tom Wright and Bradley Hope of The Wall Street Journal, which focuses on Jho Low, the purported mastermind behind the 1MDB scheme. The book was published in September 2018.